A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

“What was after the universe? Nothing.”

Stephen’s formative years are spent wrestling with unexpectedly big questions in his schoolroom. When asked to write out his address, for example, he struggles to comprehend the sheer size of the universe. This leads him into the religious matters that will dictate so much of his later life. Even at this stage, the idea of a divine place beyond the universe such as heaven seems like “nothing” (17) to Stephen. This also represents Stephen’s tendency to get caught up in his own thoughts. A question about his address becomes a question about the size and scale of the universe, which then becomes a metaphysical question about the world beyond.

“They were waiting for the door to open and for the servants to come in, holding the big dishes covered with their heavy metal covers.”

While Stephen is a boy, his family is wealthy, but his father’s mismanagement of the family fortunes will lead them into poverty in the latter stages of the novel. As a point of comparison, the first Christmas dinner where Stephen is permitted to sit at the adults’ table is also the last time when the family is able to enjoy their wealth. Servants carry heavy metal dishes to the table; the food is plentiful, and the crockery is expensive, served by paid staff. The decline of the Dedalus family’s wealth can be charted in the diminishing luxury of their table settings, with Stephen present to witness this decline firsthand.

“He was for Ireland and Parnell and so was his father: and so was Dante too for one night at the band on the esplanade she had hit a gentleman on the head with her umbrella because he had taken off his hat when the band played God save the Queen at the end.”

At the Christmas dinner table, Stephen watches the adults argue about politics and religion. However, their squabbles are put aside when facing external enemies. Stephen inherits the Irish Republican cause from his father, even though he does not yet comprehend what this means. Even Dante, who criticizes Parnell and those who operate in a secular manner, feels drawn toward the cause in opposition to the Protestant forces of English colonialism. She criticizes the Irish nationalist movement at home, but in public, she acknowledges that the bond of Catholicism and Irishness is worth defending against anyone who respects the English national anthem.

“The cheers died away in the soft grey air. He was alone. He was happy and free.”

Though he was bullied by his classmates in the past, Stephen is hailed as a hero after confronting the rector about an overzealous prefect. The celebrations fade and Stephen is left alone again, a foreshadowing of the social isolation that he will feel later in life. Also foreshadowed is Stephen’s feeling toward this isolation: he is “happy and free” (67), rather than upset. The praise of the classmates is fleeting and temporary, but Stephen can be proud of his actions and his accomplishments, even without anyone around him.

“In a vague way he understood that his father was in trouble and that this was the reason why he himself had not been sent back to Clongowes.”

As Stephen matures and begins to establish his own identity, he becomes more acutely aware of the flaws and failings of his parents. His life has changed as a result of his father‘s financial mismanagement; he knows that he will not be returning to Clongowes and that this is somehow his father‘s fault. However, Stephen lacks the awareness and development to look beyond the broad changes in his life. He can only experience the world based on his own perceptions until he develops the empathy and intelligence that will allow him to perceive of his family in a broader social sense.

“The causes of his embitterment were many, remote and near. He was angry with himself for being young and the prey of restless foolish impulses, angry also with the change of fortune which was reshaping the world about him into a vision of squalor and insincerity.”

In the period before Stephen’s family moves and he begins life at his new school, Stephen’s sense of identity develops. Here, Stephen is on the cusp of self-awareness, educated enough to know that he is angry with the world but lacking the vocabulary with which to express the many causes of his embitterment. Stephen’s journey and his ambitions as an artist revolve around discovering this vocabulary and learning to put into words exactly why he feels so alienated and bitter.

“The confession came only from Stephen’s lips and, while they spoke the words, a sudden memory had carried him to another scene called up, as if by magic, at the moment when he had noted the faint cruel dimples at the corners of Heron’s smiling lips and had felt the familiar stroke of the cane against his calf and had heard the familiar word of admonition:—Admit.”

As Stephen wrestles with formative feelings of guilt and his desire to be separate and private, he is thrust into a parody of a church confessional. Faced down by Heron and Wallis, he refuses to confess to his romantic feelings toward Emma, a young girl who is in the audience for his school play. The familiarity of the scene is already pressed on Stephen’s consciousness and, in the future, his desire to confess his sins will bear the hallmark of this early demand that he “admit” (88) to his unscrupulous behavior.

“I am Stephen Dedalus. I am walking beside my father whose name is Simon Dedalus. We are in Cork, in Ireland.”

Feeling overwhelmed, Stephen is comforted by repeating his name and identity slowly to himself. The words have a ritualistic quality, resembling the prayers taught to Stephen by the Jesuit priests at his school. The invention of this new, secular prayer as a comforting device demonstrates the ways Stephen tries to use his education to make sense of a confusing, chaotic world. He reiterates his identity as a ritual of self-affirmation, relieving the anxiety that arrives when he suddenly feels as though he does not understand himself.

“Good night, Willie dear!”

As he moves into his adolescence, Stephen endures a brief crisis of identity. After he develops the ritual of repeating his name and his address to situate himself in the world and reaffirm his identity, he finds a new pleasure in losing himself in the chaos of the night. A sex worker addresses him as Willie and, for a brief moment of sensual pleasure, Stephen is permitted to be anonymous. He does not need to worry about the sins of Stephen, as the sexual sins he may commit belong to Willie. He does not need to worry about the state of his soul or the consequences of his actions because—in this moment—he is given the opportunity to not be Stephen.

“His soul, as these memories came back to him, became again a child’s soul.”

Stephen grows older and gains the capacity to reflect on his past. His memories return him to a more innocent time, when his soul was like that of a child. The influence of Stephen’s father is clear, in that both characters use nostalgia as a way to escape their present anxieties. Simon escapes from the pressing financial hardship of his present by talking often and loudly about the past, while Stephen copes with his moral turmoil by returning his mind to a more sanctified state.

“Banish from your minds all worldly thoughts and think only of the last things, death, judgement, hell, and heaven.”

The long, dark sermon delivered by the priest to the schoolboys leaves an impression on Stephen’s mind, tying the theme of Struggling Spirituality to Art, Language, and Liberation through Stephen’s imagination. So much of the narrative space is dedicated to this sermon as a way to illustrate the impact the words have on Stephen’s mental state. He views himself as a sinner, his thoughts are ridden with shame and guilt even in private. He hyper-focuses on “death, judgement, hell, and heaven” (125) because he is ashamed of his actions and fearful of the state of his soul. As a result of Stephen’s obsession, the narrative is taken over by a speech on this very subject.

“Rain was falling on the chapel, on the garden, on the college. It would rain for ever, noiselessly.”

In a continuation of the theme Struggling Spirituality, the rain functions as a metaphor for Stephen‘s religious turmoil. Such anxieties plague him everywhere, whether he is at school (the college), at home (the garden), or in a church (the chapel). These thoughts are noiseless and unnoticeable to the outside world, but they haunt Stephen everywhere. Religious torment and mental anguish are as natural to Stephen as the rain that falls frequently in Ireland.

“These devils, who were once beautiful angels, have become as hideous and ugly as they once were beautiful.”

In the context of religious sermons, sin is given an aesthetic quality. Devils are “ugly” while angels are “beautiful”; these devils, specifically, were angels that have been rendered ugly by their fall from grace. The aesthetic transformation from beautiful to ugly is a visual metaphor. Stephen, whose artistic mind has already tied art and language to religion, is caught by this imagery, and his fears deepen.

“At the end of all those billions and trillions of years eternity would have scarcely begun.”

The sermon teaches the boys about their place in the universe. The effect, in Stephen’s mind, is to be reminded of just how small and insignificant he is as a person. Years before, Stephen wrestled with the same problems by writing out his address to include the Earth and the Universe. Now, his insignificance takes on a temporal aspect. His life is an immaterial blip on the unimaginably long timeline that is eternity. This makes Stephen wonder what he can do to give his life any meaning at all, eventually leading him to the conclusion that art is the only worthwhile pursuit for any individual, insignificant human.

“How often had he seen himself as a priest wielding calmly and humbly the awful power of which angels and saints stood in reverence!”

When Stephen tries to imagine a future in the priesthood, he can only conceive of himself through the eyes of others. He does not view it as a way to develop a more direct or meaningful relationship with God. Instead, he wants to be seen performing the role of the priest, publicly wielding religious power and authority. The thought of being a priest is intermingled with Stephen’s vanity, in that the status and power appeal to him more than the religious aspect. This moment also shows how Stephen, despite his attempts at piety, views religious devotion as ultimately performative and meaningless.

“Even before they set out on life’s journey they seemed weary already of the way.”

As he studies his younger brothers and sisters, Stephen recognizes a weariness in his siblings. Their tiredness is different to his own existential, religious angst. While Stephen remembers a time when the family was not struggling so much, his younger siblings have known only the decline into the poverty that Simon has brought about. They do not have Stephen’s happier memories, but they have not experienced “life’s journey” (186), which has exhausted Stephen. In this way, Stephen reestablishes his ongoing isolation; he is distant not only from his parents and peers, but from his siblings too.

“Where was his boyhood now? Where was the soul that had hung back from her destiny, to brood alone upon the shame of her wounds and in her house of squalor and subterfuge to queen it in faded cerements and in wreaths that withered at the touch? Or where was he?”

Stephen feels spiritually dislocated from the world. After he rejects the idea of becoming a priest, he loses his belief in God altogether. With this line, he is searching for something to give his existence weight and substance. Across three sentences, this spiritual dislocation—the search for happier memories—is turned into a physical dislocation. Stephen cannot locate his past, which makes him unable to locate his present. This subtle change from spiritual to physical indicates the totalizing effect that Stephen’s crisis is having on his life, affecting everything about his existence.

“He felt above him the vast indifferent dome and the calm processes of the heavenly bodies; and the earth beneath him, the earth that had borne him, had taken him to her breast.”

The “vast indifferent dome” (196) of the sky is a metaphor for the whole world. Stephen examines the world around him and feels separated from it. The world does not care about him, as he is simply too small and insignificant. This contrasts with Stephen’s inner chaos. The more his thoughts rage, the more he delves into spiritual anguish, the more pronounced the indifference of the universe seems to Stephen.

“His own consciousness of language was ebbing from his brain and trickling into the very words themselves which set to band and disband themselves in wayward rhythms.”

Stephen’s interest in language is vital to his perception of the world. He searches for the right words with which to express his fears and anxieties, hoping that writing them down or speaking them aloud will provide him with catharsis or resolution in some regard. Stephen cannot tame his artistic thoughts, and his anxious use of language spills out of his brain, even when he wishes he could simply relax. This ties the theme of language to the theme of identity, as the two concepts are inextricably linked within Stephen.

“Vive l‘Irlanda.”

Stephen and his friends acknowledge the complexity of advocating for an independent Ireland while using the language of their colonizers. All the students speak English as their first language, but they rebel against the English control of Ireland. The irony of this is not lost on them, so they search for new means of expression that do not tie them to England. The French language is one such attempt, building on a history of Franco-Irish relations that includes the Irish Revolution of 1798, which was inspired by the contemporaneous French Revolution. Fundamentally, however, the students are searching for a revolutionary language of their own. This ties language and liberation to independence and identity on a greater scale than Stephen’s individual struggles.

“If we must have a Jesus let us have a legitimate Jesus.”

In their discussions, the students bandy about the need for legitimacy in their religious institutions. The question of legitimacy can be applied throughout the novel, particularly with regard to the matter of Irish independence. The institutions of the British-controlled Ireland are—to the young men—not legitimate, even though such institutions are necessary overall. Whether discussing religion, colonialism, or school, the students’ minds are occupied with the matter of Irish independence, and it informs their other discussions.

“Our day will come yet, believe me.”

The use of the phrase “our day will come” (231) represents an ironic interplay between Joyce’s fleeting interest in Irish nationalism and the evolution of the topic in future generations. Davin’s passing comment during a debate is quickly forgotten, especially with Stephen’s imminent announcement that he must quit Ireland, much as Joyce himself did just before the battle for independence began. The phrase “our day will come” (231) would become popularized in Irish during the Northern Ireland conflict in the 1970s, when ‘tiocfaidh ár lá’ (Irish for ‘our day will come’) was widely used by republicans such as Bobby Sands and Gerry Adams. Stephen, as a representation of Joyce, possesses only a passing interest in Irish independence, as they are more focused on their artistic ambitions. Yet ironically, their story provides the Irish Republican movement with one of its most notable slogans.

“Are you not weary of ardent ways? / Tell me no more of enchanted days.”

Throughout the novel, the snippets of Stephen‘s poetry grow increasingly sophisticated as he matures into an adult. At the same time, the novel’s prose shifts away from the nursery rhyme-like opening sentences to more eloquent, sophisticated poetry, like Stephen’s villanelle poem. Stephen, like the subject of his poem, no longer wants to hear the enchanted stories of his past. As his language and the language of the narration become more complex, they take on a weariness that demonstrates how this journey of self-discovery has taken a toll on Stephen’s mental wellbeing.